A variety of techniques are covered in presentations on the use of art, journals, and other expressive therapies to manage trauma symptoms and provide vehicles for growth. A sample of presentations is presented below. Contact us and we can tailor a talk for you.

• Managing Traumatic Stress Through Art Artwork offers survivors of trauma an opportunity to enhance present-day mastery in a grounded, creative, and gentle way. Art encourages creative growth while still maintaining personal safety. One can explore and honor feelings of anger, fear, shame and sadness. The workbook Managing Traumatic Stress Through Art is used as a basis for structuring symptom management.


• The Way of the Journal People who have trouble verbalizing their trauma stories can open paths to healing through the process of journal writing. Stories and poems can act as containers for traumatic memories. The Way of the Journal outlines an approach to using reflective writing as a therapeutic process. The author’s ten-step "quick and easy" method was created to provide sexual abuse survivors and dissociative clients with ways to maximize structure, balance, and permission while minimizing overstimulation and overwhelming feeling. Developed while working with dissociative disorders patients at a national treatment center, The Way of the Journal can be used by all survivors, as well as anyone in pain who wishes to gain greater self-understanding. Presentations provide an overview of the methods.


• Growing Beyond Survival: Learning Ways to Manage Symptoms This presentation addresses the processes by which traumatic stress symptoms develop. We conceptualize symptoms as adaptations to be understood in context and then addressed collaboratively. Specific interventions are discussed and demonstrated. The talk is based on materials found in the workbook Growing Beyond Survival: A Self-Help Toolkit for Managing Traumatic Stress. The presentation can be tailored to helping survivors cope with symptoms or helping therapists cope with vicarious trauma.


• Story Telling as a Means to Self-Discovery Story telling can be used to explore themes with relevance for all of us: coming of age and learning to trust in our own judgment and intuition; dealing with experiences of profound loss; coming to terms with demons of past abuses and trauma; and confronting the choices that we all must make as we try to figure out how to live a meaningful life. This presentation the use of story telling as a vehicle for expression and symptom management. The book The 24-Carat Buddha and Other Fables is used as an example of a story telling format for managing symptoms.